Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37, NLT)
For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church.
(Ephesians 5:25, NLT)
Husband, what are your priorities? If you are a Christian, your top priority is easy. Jesus tells in Matthew 22 that our greatest responsibility is to love God with every fiber of our being. But what follows after that? Your job? Your children? Your neighbor? Your ministry? Your wife? Maybe something else takes priority for you. We know that in the same Matthew passage Jesus calls us to love others. That command directs us that our job and even ministry fall behind loving others as a priority.
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After loving God, our priority responsibility is to love our wife well. She is our greatest mission.
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I know that some of you may be thinking, “Loving people is my ministry so ministry is my highest priority after God.” I will agree with you…if you are single. If you are married, after God, your priority is your wife. Everything else falls after that. When Paul talks about the mystery of marriage in Ephesians 5, he reveals the high purpose of marriage reflecting Christ’s love and relationship for His bride, the Church. Our role as husbands is to love our wives as Christ loved the church. After loving God, our priority responsibility is to love our wife well. She is our greatest mission.
As I look back in the earlier years of our marriage, I realized my priorities were skewed. I was in church ministry and my wife, Carla, took a back seat to that ministry. I did not see her as my number one mission. I did not realize that after loving God, my next priority should be loving my wife well. No wonder we struggled so much in our relationship in those early years.
Be honest with yourself. Is loving God your highest priority? Does loving your wife well come after that and before everything else? Jesus gave everything for His bride, the Church. What are we sacrificing for our wives so they know that they are valued, loved, and cherished. Are we making our wives our primary mission? One day God is going to ask us if we loved His daughter well. How will you respond?
Keep on forging,
Johnny
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